Janus, the lesser

Janus, the lesser

Oh, see the man

Who walks the road

Towards the crowd

That waits beyond

The junction. 

With his face turned

Out in flattery

And cheerful presentation,

And his charismatic

Speech begins, all

Full of practiced rhetoric

And words of

Smoothest structure. 

And across the square

There stands another

Crowd, and the man then

Turns his other face

That bears an evil look

Of fearful frowning. 

To the second crowd

Assembled there, he weaves

Another speech, immersed 

In deepest falsehood.

He speaks then on,

That little man

Who sees himself

Reflected in the windows

Of that courthouse

Down the street,

A greater god

Within a lesser frame,

And he weaves his tales

Between the listening

Crowds, the air now

Thick with lies, as

Fog descends and that

Pitiful little Janus speaks

Still on, as all the

Crowd depart in time,

All sick of hurt and

Weary of the falsehoods

Now that fill the fog-thick air. 

The road continues

On beyond the square,

And the little grecian

Strolls away, to find

Another crowd to hear

His tales of purest poison. 

31/5/19

Reviews

[bigfootprint]

Well presented, Charlotte. You must be writing of Satan -- or a politician of similar nature. I could name a few. The daily news is full of forked-tongue rogues. Your unrhymed verses flow with simple elegance, and the narrative undisrupted. This posting could stand for Chapter 1 of a grand saga. Your story captures the rambling rhetoric of self-serving propagandists, who speak in a dialectic that redefines the words to mean the opposite people hear. Only the dumbest fail to read the eely treachery behind the verisimilitude. Good work.

[Charlotte Wensleydale]

This poem was prompted by one person in particular, but as with most characterisations, it can apply to a large number of people. Treachery is as old as humanity itself, and the twin-sided rhetoric of such people as you mentioned is often difficult unless one sees both sides.

The poem could, indeed, be part of a longer series, but it seems best to leave it open-ended, as life often is.